"The Oscars For Technology Entrepreneurs"

About the Awards

There were over 300 guests at the 2019 Enterprise Awards black-tie Dinner. Attended by Technology celebrities, Investors and high growth businesses and contributing to the WCIT Chosen Charity, the must attend event of the year – ‘The Oscars for Technology Entrepreneurs’.

Uniquely focused on the founder rather than the businesses themselves, the Enterprise Awards boasted previous winners that have achieved prominence on both private and public markets. The judging panel looked for examples of vision, growth, innovation, funding, use of capital, use of resources, strategy, execution, ambition and determination to succeed. We were delighted to have Sir Ken Olisa, the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London and co- Founder of the Enterprise Awards, as our guest speaker and to present the awards to the winners.

Platinum sponsor

in association with

Silver Sponsors

Media Sponsor

Organised by

Supported by

Categories

The 2020 Award categories are as follows:

Start Up Entrepreneur
trading for two years or less

Emerging Entrepreneur
up to £3 million annual revenue

Developing Entrepreneur
annual revenue between £3 and £10 million

Scale Up Entrepreneur
for developing and enterprise entrants with highest growth rates

Public Sector Entrepreneur
for entrepreneurs targeting the Public Sector

Enterprise Entrepreneur
annual revenue over £10 million

Social Enterprise Entrepreneur
for entrepreneurs with a business model that gives something back

* The Enterprise Awards has been postponed until 2021. The new date will be announced shortly.

Enter Now

Why enter?

Julie Walters, Raremark – Female Entrepreneur Winner 2017
‘Winning awards makes investors happy and reassures prospective clients that you know what you’re doing.We closed a pre-Series A round of investment in 2018, which was a key moment in the development of Raremark. We now have the team and the resources to make the most of the opportunity before us.’

Nic Cary, Blockchain – Judges Special Award Winner 2018
‘We entered because we were keen to raise our profile in the financial services sector. Our team was proud to be nominated and to win and we’ve doubled the size of the company since the awards.’

George Bevis, Tide – Emerging Entrepreneur Winner 2018
‘The Enterprise Awards are a hugely prestigious awards recognising leading industry talents. I couldn’t resist having a go! It is useful to be able to point to a recognised authority’s opinion as evidence that one (or one’s business) is credible.’

James Walker, Resolver – Social Enterprise Entrepreneur Winner 2018
‘We were excited about being involved in Enterprise Awards community, secretly hoping to win as a great recognition for the team and the company’s hard achievements.’

‘….the ‘Oscars of the Tech Industry demonstrate to our team, the market and investors that Resolver is a force to be taken seriously.‘

James Herbert, Notbinary – Public Sector Entrepreneur Winner 2018
‘We were just over a year old and we hoped for the publicity of an Award from a well-respected organisation as the WCIT, seen as genuinely competed for and credible. ‘

‘…it helped us internally as well, being an external validation of the business, giving us a lot of confidence in the early days. Of course, the coverage of the event and the other marketing collateral that comes with it gave us profile and coverage that we couldn’t have got any other way. Notbinary has gone from strength to strength since the award, including being acquired and now listed on the London AIM market as a result.’

Lily Stoyanov, Transformify – Female Entrepreneur Winner 2018
‘Winning an award boosts the trust and attracts the attention of prospective clients. Our award was much welcomed by our partners and clients. We are now Scaling fast and innovating all the time. We started 2019 strong being ranked in Top 50 Most Innovative Brands Worldwide and expanded our market share in the US and India.’

Imam Hoque, Quantexa – Evergreen Entrepreneur Winner 2017
‘Having been recommended to the Awards by our VC Fund, we gained valuable PR. We have since grown the business from about 50 to 150 headcount and we have expanded from London to Toronto, Boston, New York, Brussels, Singapore and Sydney in the last 2 years’.

All winners of an Enterprise Award will:

Have full use of the Enterprise Awards logo

Enhance their personal and business profile through PR coverage

Have the opportunity to network with an influential community of business leaders across a range of sectors and geographies

2020 Judging Panel

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The Judging Panel for the 2020 Enterprise Awards are:

John O'Connell - ScaleUp Group

John O’Connell founded the Enterprise Awards in 2011 to identify high performing individuals in the Tech Sector. having founded , floated and sold one of the UK’s most successful enterprise companies of its day, Staffware plc for $200+ million. Since then he has personally invested in 12 tech businesses, chairing most, with a number of other exits for more than £100 million.

Currently he chairs several software businesses, whose founders were in the running for an Award this year. He founded ScaleUp Group in 2017 to expand his own investing and mentoring activities, expecting to lead 6 funding completions during 2018

Paul Excell - ScaleUp Group

Paul is an entrepreneur, global executive leader and executive coach with an impressive track record of delivering growth and transformation in start-ups, scale-ups and corporates.

He was Chief Customer Innovation Officer, Group Technology Officer and VP Global Services at BT where he launched many global services/businesses – revenues >$4bn. He is an alumnus of London Business School, IMD (Lausanne), University of Essex and University of York. He started his career as a Technical Apprentice and is passionate about skills, diversity and inclusion.

Stephen Kelly -

Stephen has 35 years’ unique leadership experience in both the private and public sectors. He has held CEO positions with three successful UK & USA public tech companies, as well as spending three years as COO of the UK Government, consistently delivering outstanding results in disruptive markets.

Most recently, Stephen was Chief Executive of FTSE100 company, Sage Group. Sage is the UK’s largest technology company. During Stephen’s tenure, Sage became a global Top 10 publicly-listed cloud company by revenue, and the fastest growing from a standing start. Under Stephen’s four-year tenure, Sage saw its market value double. Stephen launched the Sage Foundation, reaching out to communities and charities to promote inclusive, compassionate capitalism.

Prior to his time at Sage, Stephen served as Chief Operating Officer for the UK Government (HMG) until November 2014. As the most senior Civil Servant, Stephen was responsible for the Efficiency and Reform programme including Digital, Technology, Commercial, Major Projects and SME strategies across UK Central Government Departments. Between 2010 and 2015, the programme delivered £50bn of savings for taxpayers, whilst improving citizen services (e.g. GOV.UK), and UK SME job creation. Stephen was a member of the Cabinet Office Board and HMG’s Senior Information Risk Officer (GSIRO).

Before this, Stephen was the Chief Executive Officer of two fast-growing public tech companies: FTSE 100-listed Micro Focus, and Nasdaq-listed Chordiant Software. During his four years at Micro Focus, the company achieved a 7-fold increase in market value. At Chordiant, Stephen was part of the Californian ‘start-up’ team to a ‘Deloitte Fastest 50’ of $100m revenues and Nasdaq IPO. Prior to this, Stephen was at Oracle for nine years on the European executive team. Stephen has held NED roles, including Curam Software which was acquired by IBM in 2011.

Over his diverse CEO career adding £5bn+ of market value, Stephen has come to be particularly experienced in creating compelling visions and strategies; leading market and digital disruption; creating strong teams with positive cultures; and governing in complex stakeholder landscapes. His robust operational skills ensure for near flawless execution.

Stephen received an honorary doctorate from Bath University in Business Administration and has been a Business Ambassador for the British Prime Minister.

Stephen is on social media channels at @SKellyCEO

Nick Kingsbury - Amadeus Capital

Nick is an experienced international software entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He started his career with one of the leading UK software houses before setting up his own software and consultancy company in the mid-1980s. He sold this business to Staffware plc. He then spent eight years at the venture capitalist 3i as sector head for software and internet investments. As part of the role he advised on many investment and built relationships with many of the large tech industry acquirers mostly in the US.

Since 2007 Nick has acted as advisor to a number of venture capital funds including the London Technology Fund and C5 Capital, and also has advised and invested in many early stage technology companies. He chaired Accumuli plc, an AIM listed cyber security integrator, sold to NCC Group for 55m, a 5x return for early investors. He currently serves as a director of Loot Financial Services and Objective Corporation, an Australian ASX listed information management software company. Nick is also an advisor to Growthpoint Technology Partners, a Menlo Park headquartered technology investment bank.

In 2018 he joined Amadeus Capital as a partner in their latest early stage fund.

Paddy McGwire - Silverpeak

Paddy is Managing Partner of Silverpeak. Previously he founded Cobalt Corporate Finance in 1996, the TMT sector specialist adviser, and merged with Silverpeak in 2016 to create a far stronger international platform.

Paddy has extensive experience of creating value and an outstanding track record of successful deal making in the technology sector over 25 years. Prior to Cobalt, his experience includes 7 years at private equity group 3i and at electronics group STC plc.

He is a founding member of the international M&A network Globalscope with active members on every continent.

Paddy has a BSc(Hons) in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester (UMIST) and is a Liveryman of the Information Technologists.

George O'Connor - Stifel

George O’Connor is a technology analyst at Stifel. George covers European-listed technology companies for a range of UK and international institutional investors.

George was lead analyst on a series of LSE IPOs including LoopUp, Osirium, Focusrite, Eagle Eye, Fusionex, WANdisco and Escher.

Rated by Reuters and Starmine, George was ranked Small Cap Analyst at the inaugural AIM Awards. Prior to joining the City in 1998, George spent nine years at IT industry analyst IDC advising IT buyers, government and IT companies on procurement, technology futures and tech-enomics.

Lisa Powis - ScaleUp Group

Award winning FinTech entrepreneur and experienced Insurance executive. Founder and ex CEO Fresh sold to the Vantage Group in May 2018.

Tola Sargeant - TechMarketView LLP

Tola Sargeant has been a Director at influential UK IT analyst firm TechMarketView since 2009, shortly after the business was founded by Richard Holway MBE and Anthony Miller, and took on the role of Managing Director in May 2017.

An analyst at heart, Tola has responsibility for TechMarketView’s strategic direction, overseeing Client Services and Sales and Marketing activity, as well as TechMarketView’s groundbreaking research and analysis.

With some twenty years experience in the sector, Tola is a respected industry analyst known for her commentary on the UK software and IT services market and for her in-depth knowledge of public sector and healthcare IT. Tola contributes research to TechMarketView’s PublicSectorViews research stream, with a particular focus on the UK health and social care tech sector, and is frequently called upon to advise clients on their approach to the market.

Before joining TechMarketView, Tola was Practice Leader for Ovum’s Geographies & Industries practice where she was responsible for Ovum’s government and healthcare IT research globally, a role that included advising the UK government’s £12bn National Programme for IT in the NHS. Prior to that, Tola analysed the telecoms and networking markets for a range of Informa publications and spent time as a Foreign Correspondent covering financial and technology news for the Japanese News and Wire Agency, Jiji Press, in London.

Tola has an MSc in International Business from Manchester Business School and a First Class BSc in Russian and Economics with International Business from the University of Surrey.

Jonno Southam - Amazon Web Services

Jonno is a two-time founder with over 20 years’ experience both as an entrepreneur and as a senior technologist in high growth enterprise technology companies. The last 8 years has seen him focusing on building the AWS startups network in London and supporting the broader EMEA Venture Capital ecosystem in the UK and the Nordics regions with: driving strategic engagements with VC- backed portfolios; sourcing deal flow; conducting due diligence; and helping keep the investor community up–to-date on Amazon/AWS related technologies. A strong advocate of scaling startup culture, Jonno also talks publicly about building and maintaining a robust scalable process to ensure startups continually raise the bar when hiring new employees.

Nick Travis - Smith & Williamson

Nick is a Partner at Smith & Williamson Investment Management. He advises clients around preparing their personal affairs and their businesses ahead of and exit their businesses.

Nick has twice been named in the Citywire 30 under 30, is named in the 2017 PAM 40 under 40. He is a Freeman of the WCIT. He was named Mentor of the Year at the Enterprise Awards in 2016 for his work with growing companies.

Nick has a Masters in General Engineering from Durham University and holds the PCIAM qualification and is a Chartered Fellow of the CISI.

Rob Wirszycz - WCIT

Rob is a non-exec chairman, advisor and mentor for start-up, scale-up, turnaround, not-for-profit, private equity-backed and publicly-quoted businesses. Over the last 15 years, he has been directly involved in fundraising over £150 million and exits worth over £500 million. He has functional experience in strategy, ‘change’, marketing, sales, and ‘people’, as well as domain expertise in e-commerce, managed services, software-as-a-service, insurance, and consumer electronics.

Rob has an MBA, holds Chartered status as an Engineer and Marketer; is a fellow of the RSA and BCS; a Court Assistant of the IT Livery Company, where he is Chairman of the Entrepreneurs Panel; and is a Visiting Fellow at Cass and Imperial Business Schools.

2020 Sponsors

In association with

The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) is the 100th livery company of the City of London, bringing together the centuries old livery tradition and information technology, a key industry of the new millennium.

Since 1992, when the Company was awarded livery status by the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, it has been actively demonstrating the relevance of the livery tradition to modern day society.

The Company uses the time, expertise and resources of its members to promote the information technology profession and undertake a range of charitable and educational activities. The Company currently has some 780 members, all of whom have important links with the IT profession.

Silver sponsors

ScaleUp was recently formed by highly successful technology entrepreneurs who have gone through the complete journey from starting up, getting funds, MBO; floating — on both Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange and exiting.

ScaleUp offers a ‘one stop shop’ to growing technology businesses for advice, guidance and connections in the areas of building and retaining world class teams; expansion, especially internationally; product management; coaching; governance, as well as providing finance for exiting selected founders plus growth capital.

Silverpeak is an investment bank exclusively focused on the technology sector, serving the best growth companies in M&A and financing transactions and with a global footprint in over 40 countries.

Smith & Williamson is one of the UK’s leading professional services groups, providing an extensive range of accountancy, tax, corporate nance, financial advisory and investment management services to private clients, entrepreneurs, professional practices and mid-to-large corporates. The firm has a dedicated entrepreneurs group which understands the complexities facing growing businesses and their owners, providing end-to-end services to meet their needs. It is a champion of the entrepreneurial cause and uses its energy and expertise to help emerging and established entrepreneurs and management teams to succeed and make a difference.

As an independently owned professional and financial services group, with around 1,500 people operating in the UK, Ireland and Jersey, and with international connections in over 100 countries, the firm is highly regarded for its personal and pragmatic approach.

To find out more about Smith & Williamson, visit www.smith.williamson.co.uk, or alternatively call Guy Rigby, Head of Entrepreneurial Services on 020 7131 8213.

Media Sponsor

TechMarketView LLP provides authoritative research and analysis on the technology scene.

TechMarketView brings you UKHotViews, the daily source of informed opinion and comment on the events, issues and players that really matter in the UK software and IT services market. In addition, TechMarketView offers a series of subscription services enabling access to in-depth market research and analysis.

These focused research streams provide subscribers with access to a range of detailed market and supplier analysis with particular emphasis on the UK software, IT services, and business process services sectors.

TechMarketView also provides a variety of additional services ranging from presentations and workshop sessions through to bespoke research and consultancy projects.